Did my first zwift race...disappointed at people!

It does (to best of my knowledge) only use races…but you said you were doing a TR workout during a C race…Therefore in a race. Zwift doesn’t know you were doing TR.

OK… thanks, I thought that was the case. And for the record, that wasn’t me doing the workout. :slight_smile:

The race itself is enough of a workout, not sure how doing a workout during a race would go down.

My goal for this year is to get to 4.0 w/kg FTP…I’ve never once had a 20’ interval average that put me OVER 4.0., let alone 3 “best races” with such a power output.

Even on the race in question, my max avg power for any given period of time was probably ~3.5. I’ll double check my data and confirm.

You should not have been bumped to the A Cat then if you are a 3.0-3.5 max 20’ power. Something is not right.

You get passed a lot… that’s how it goes.

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I call it “a TT with a little help at the start”. You get a few minutes of pull, then they all vanish in the dust and you work all by yourself, with a few stragglers if you’re lucky.

I’m probably going to do Richardson +3 today as stage 7 TdZ. That’ll be interesting. Noodling at the back of the field, then a 9W/kg attack followed by 15/15s between 5.5W/kg and 3.2W/kg, then back to 1.5w/kg for 5 min… confuse the :poop: out of people.

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Thats how I won my first zwift race ahha, well I did one of those 3x20SS workouts where I just went 1hr straight and did a 15 sec sprint at the end.

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I like it because you don’t have the little workout icon and that screen in front of you. sometimes I am drafting someone and then hit some massive VO2max effort and they counter, while I’m looking at the blue bar thinking “bro, I’ve got 3 more minutes of this…”

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I do this all the time. It’s fun to check your position in the group (like 551 / 800) at the start of each interval, and then see how much you climb up the rankings by the end. Short/shorts are more about the full set each time.

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LOL…been there. I’m yelling at the TV “Just sit in dude…you can get a free ride!” :rofl:

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I’ve been doing that with sweet spot lately, and in the C groups (my intervals are 3.9w/kg), because if I did it in B groups I don’t really stand a chance at clawing my way back the way the group dynamics work

not being flippant here, but say, for people who are tired of racing against sandbaggers in the Bs, try jumping into the A race. By definition, sandbaggers wn’t be an issue there :slight_smile:

Success in the racing is not really about FTP. If you have good, sustainable high-end power, you can hang in and even animate A races with FTP w/kg of like 3.6 to 3.8. So sure, maybe the ADZ mountaintop finish is not gonna be your day to shine, but if it’s the right race, and you come in nice and fresh (meaning–you didn’t just do a huge sweet spot workout the day before etc.) you can surprise yourself.

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Skipped the race tonight but may do it in the morning with North Pack… that might not be so bad actually.

I’ve been wanting to try a Zwift racing, so I jumped in a D group KISS race. I was basically in sweet spot or above for 60% of the ride and my HR averaged about 177bpm and during the sprint at the end I touched 196bpm. This is not out of the ordinary for me, but looking through the zwift power results a lot of riders much faster then me are averaging in the 150bpm range. Am I abnormally high or is everyone just coasting along in the zwift races? I’m using a viiiiva HR monitor. I know HR doesn’t matter too much but the numbers from other riders took me by surprise.

In over under workouts I might hit 181, threshold I’m usually in the mid 170s.

I’m one of the low outliers - generally the lowest or one of the lowest average and max HR in the races I do. My max is at 160, I will hit 150+ as a max in a race maybe, and average around 135. When I reach 150 in over/unders I know I’m in trouble.

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Tuesday entered 3 Laps Flat Race 30km A Grade
Avg 342w @3.9w/kg
Avg Hr 166 Max he 182
Finished 10th in A. 11th Overall

Overall A seems to be fairly consistent with w/kg and HR data. All around 3.8-4.5 and 160hr avg.

I’d rather finish last in A and push my limits. Other grades can be a crap shoot with sand baggers.

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wow, finally someone higher than me. I am always far and away the highest HR average in the zwift races, my LTHR is 187

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I would love to see Trainer Road branch out and launch their own Virtual racing platform, but make it “workout based,” racing for intervals instead of a course distance. Riders race for a set amount of time(1 minute), and then everyone is leveled out and even for the recovery period(5 minutes) regardless of their power output. Next interval starts, new race.

Leaderboard(watts/kg) for each individual interval, and then a running average leaderboard as intervals are completed. Nothing brings out more intensity than competition, and this would certainly raise the motivation to complete intervals and keep intensity up, while still maintaining a central focus and structure.

It would require a certain discipline to not blow out the first few intervals by staying near your target and of course no drafting allowed! KOI(King of Interval) racing!

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First race on the crit course, I really liked it. 4th in A, 344w 156bpm. Everyone in A was at 4w/kg+.

The crit course, you can use that for practising crit life, the on off over the rollers and out of corners.